Information on New Mexico Seismic Activity from the New Mexico Tech Seismological Observatory
A minor earthquake occurred on January 18, 2010, at 1:47:07 MST (8:41:07 UTC) about 20 miles (35 km) WSW of Raton, New Mexico. The USGS located this earthquake at 36.84N latitude and 104.80W longitude. The USGS official magnitude was 3.8. The depth was not constrained.
The figure below shows the seismogram of the earthquake as it was recorded by the closest station (LPM) of New Mexico Tech's Socorro Seismic Network.
The USGS figures below show the location of the earthquake and locations where people reported what they felt.
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Jana Stankova-Pursley, Seismic Lab Technician, and Susan Delap Heath, EES Webmaster, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
A minor earthquake occurred on September 23, 2009 at 07:03:15 MDT (13:03:15 UTC) about 26 km northeast of Pie Town, NM. This earthquake located at 34.494N and 107.8933W and had magnitude 2.5. The depth of the earthquake was not constrained. The map below shows the location of this event (red star) with respect to Pie Town.
The second image below shows the seismogram recorded by station MLM from the Socorro Seismic Network.
Jana Stankova-Pursley, Seismic Lab Technician, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
A minor earthquake occurred on September 14, 2009, at 12:27:24 MDT (18:27:34 UTC) about 40 km south of Chama. This earthquake located at 34.5435N and 106.4608W and had magnitude 2.6. The depth of the earthquake was not constrained. The GoogleEarth image below shows the location of this event (yellow star) with respect to Chama.
The second image below shows the seismogram recorded by the closest station (station MLM) from the Socorro Seismic Network.
Jana Stankova-Pursley, Seismic Lab Technician, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Seismicity within the Socorro region has been very active in recent days. A felt earthquake of magnitude (ML) 2.3 occurred on August 19, 2009 approximately 3 km NE of Socorro near Escondida. Small events continued to occur during this time with activity beginning near the Lemitar area on August 24, 2009. These events have been numerous and fairly shallow depth of 5.5-6 km. The largest event was ML=2.5 on August 29, 2009 at 18:31:01 MDT (August 30, 2009 at 01:31:01 UTC) and was felt by many residents of Lemitar and Socorro. We have preliminary locations on the largest 53 events (ML range of 0.5 to 2.5); however, over 400 smaller events have also occurred since August 19, 2009. The locations of 53 of the largest earthquakes are very similar, suggesting that this is an earthquake swarm. Earthquake swarms are usually caused in response to tectonic or hydrological pressure changes in the crust. Minor felt earthquakes in this region are not uncommon, and have been documented by Dr. Allan Sanford in the past (figure below, blue squares). However, this was a swarm with unusually frequent, large earthquakes (14 earthquakes with ML > 1.4). For a size comparison, felt reports were noted for 4 events with ML 1.9 and greater.
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Figure Caption: August 2009 swarm locations (red stars) in proximity to Socorro and Lemitar (open squares). The first, August 19, 2009 earthquake and couple of its aftershocks (green stars, close to Socorro) located south of the rest of the swarm. Also shown are locations of earthquakes that occurred near Socorro and Lemitar between 1962 - 1998 (blue squares, Sanford et al., 2002). |
Jana Stankova-Pursley, Seismic Lab Technician, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Press Release. 08/20/2009 1pm MDT: Earthquake ~3 km NE of Socorro, NM
A minor felt earthquake (2.6 USGS) occurred on August 19, 2009 at 7:57:25 pm local time (August 20, 2009 at 01:57:25 UTC). The earthquake was located approximately 3 km northeast of Socorro, across the Rio Grande river near Escondida. The NMT-calculated location was 34.0718 degrees N and 106.8598 degrees W with a duration magnitude (ML) of 2.3. The depth was shallow and not constrained.
Below is a seismogram as it was recorded by the New Mexico Tech Seismological Observatory at station BAR (located at Barrett-- see map). Two smaller shocks were recorded below: one at 02:13:33 UTC (ML 0.1, depth 7.2 km) and 03:14:33 UTC (ML 0.9, depth 6.2 km).
The location of the main shock is shown on the map below with a large red star. The two other smaller shock locations are shown with smaller stars. The city of Socorro is the small black square. Information on this earthquake from the USGS is here.
Jana Stankova-Pursley, Seismic Lab Technician, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Press Release. 06/05/2008 1:30 pm MDT: Earthquake between Chama and Abiqui, NM
A minor felt earthquake (3.7 USGS) occurred on June 4, 2008, at 08:02:42 MDT (14:02:42 UTC). According to the USGS, the quake was centered at 36.51 degrees N, 106.35 degrees W -- approximately 27 miles (43 km) south-southeast of Chama, 21 miles (34 km) north of Abiqui, and 45 miles west of Taos, New Mexico. Below is a seismogram of the earthquake as it was recorded by New Mexico Tech at station MLM (located at Mesa Lucero -- see map).
On the USGS map below on the left, the preliminary earthquake location is shown as a red dot. The USGS map on the right shows the intensity of the earthquake as it was felt by people in the area. It indicates light shaking in the Chama area and moderate shaking around Abiqui. (Click here to report if you felt this earthquake).
-- Jana Stankova-Pursley and Susan Delap, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Press Release. 09/12/2007 11:00 am MDT: Earthquake near Reserve, NM
A minor felt earthquake (3.5 USGS) occurred on September 8, 2007 at 1:15:40 am MDT (07:15:40 UTC). The event was located approximately 6 miles (10 km) west-southwest of Reserve, the Catron County seat. The Sherrif's Department in Reserve logged felt reports as far away as Luna (20 miles N) and Apache Creek (15 miles east), as well as reports from the Catron County jail. The event was part of a small swarm that lasted several hours. This is an unusual location, historically, for a felt earthquake, although a swarm of felt earthquakes estimated to be as large as 4.5 occurred inthe Glenwood Springs, NM region in 1938-1939.
Location: 33.673°N, 108.858°W (uncertainty of 10 km)
Depth: shallow (not constrained due to the lack of nearby seismic stations).
Socorro Seismic Network station SMC record (MDT time at left, UTC at right).
Map c/o USGS NEIC
Press Release. 05/23/2007 7:55 am MDT: Earthquake near Socorro
Video Interview with Dr. Sue Bilek (37 MB or 11 MB)
A minor but widely felt earthquake of local duration magnitude 2.9 (3.3 USGS) occurred on May 22, 2007 at 11:16:55 pm MDT (05:16:55 UTC). The event was located 8 miles (12.8 km) directly west of Socorro, New Mexico, in the general vicinity of the last broadly felt Socorro earthquake of 10/29/05, but is located several km further west. The earthquake occurred at approximately 3.7 miles (6 km) depth.
Latitude: 34.0615
Longitude: -107.0295
Depth: 6.06 km
Origin Time: 2007/05/23 05:16:54.89 GMT
Main event and associated swarm events recorded at station LEM near Lemitar, NM.
John Morton, Rick Aster, Susan Bilek, Kyle Jones, Jana Stankova, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
Press Release. 12/19/2005 4:00 pm MST: Earthquake near Carlsbad, New Mexico
A minor earthquake occurred in southeast New Mexico on December 19, 2005 at 20:27:39 UTC (13:27:39 MST). The magnitude 3.8 earthquake was located at 32 degrees 38.29 minutes N and 104 degrees 36.26 minutes W, which is approximately 25 miles WNW of Carlsbad. The quake was felt in Roswell, Artesia and Carlsbad. We have received no reports of damage at this time
This earthquake is located near the Dagger Draw oil field. This area has been experiencing repeated seismicity since the late 1990's, most likely as a result of water injection practices associated with oil production.
The USGS website for this earthquake can be found at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2005/usgva8/
Below is an image of the pseudohelicorder recording from station DAG for Monday, December 19, 2005, showing the mainshock (largest event in red) and associated foreshocks and aftershocks.
Tara Mayeau, Rick Aster, Allan Sanford, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
A minor earthquake occurred tonight at 8:57:35 pm MDT (2:57:35 UTC) with a magnitude of 2.4. The quake was centered at 34.06 N and 106.96 W, approximately 5.4 km (3.4 miles) due west of Socorro, New Mexico. The quake had a depth of approximately 7 km (4.6 miles). Earthquakes of this magnitude are rarely felt; however, there were numerous felt reports from Socorro area residents due to the quake's shallowness and proximity to the city.
The US Geological Survey location for this event, obtained using a different suite of stations, is within 3 km of the NMT location. It can be found at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Quakes/usevae.htm
Below is a map of the earthquake epicenter relative to several local cities, a digital helicorder
display showing the earthquake and its small foreshocks and aftershocks, and a digital photograph of the auxiliary backup helicorder seismogram from the Woods Tunnel Seismic
Station.
This earthquake occurred within the Socorro Seismic Anomaly, a region of above average seismicity centered north of Socorro, New Mexico. Seismicity in this area is associated with the ongoing slow inflation of a thin magma body at approximately 19 km (12 miles) depth beneath the region.
Rick Aster, Kyle Jones, Tara Mayeau, Jana Stankova, John Morton, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
Another aftershock:
Time: 2005/08/11 04:00:59 (UTC) (22:00:59 MDT)
Preliminary location: 36.91N, 105.02W
Md: 2.0
-- Sue Bilek, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
This afternoon at approximately 4:08:17 pm MDT an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.9 occurred approximately 60 km northwest of Raton, New
Mexico, near the New Mexico-Colorado border.
A shallow earthquake of this magnitude is capable of causing light
damage to property. We have received no reports of damage at this time.
Shown below are the US Geological Survey location and a recording of the vertical ground velocity from the New Mexico Tech Seismographic Network at a station located near Socorro, New Mexico.
If you would like to report feeling the earthquake to a national database, click here.
This is the largest in a sequence of earthquakes along an unusually active trend of seismicity n the Raton, New Mexico-Trinidad Colorado region during the past several years. New Mexico Tech has located over 50 earthquake in this area with magnitudes greater than or equal to 2.0 in the past 18 months.
At this time this appears to be the largest earthquake to occur
within the borders of New Mexico for over 13 years (at least since
the Rattlesnake Canyon Earthquake near Eunice on January 2, 1992).
For a discussion of the larger historical earthquakes of New Mexico, click here.
-- Rick Aster, Allan Sanford, Susan Bilek, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
For more information, see the USGS site
-- Rick Aster, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
Above is a 24-hour seismic monitor record showing the great earthquake of December 26, 2004, recorded at NMT's Carthage, NM, station. The highest-amplitude signals (which are seismic surface waves) were noticeably squared off (clipped) by the display program for this earthquake, even though it was more than 15,000 km away.
Above is a 3-component, 6-hour displacement seismogram recorded by EarthScope station Y22C located near the PASSCAL Instrument Center at New Mexico Tech (120 s STS-2 seismometer). The displacement of the Earth's surface in New Mexico was greater than 1 cm from this event.
Press Release. 05/24/2004 5:00 pm MDT, NMT Seismological Observatory: May 24, 2004 -- A small earthquake (magnitude 2.9 md) occurred near Bernardo, New Mexico, at approximately 3:36 PM local time. There have been several felt reports in the Bernardo, Veguita, and Belen areas. A small foreshock, magnitude 1.2 md, occurred approximately 2 hours earlier. These earthquakes were detected by instruments operated by the New Mexico Tech Geophysics Program and US Geological Survey.
The above picture shows the main earthquake (in blue) as recorded at
NMT's Lemitar, NM, station. (See stations
map page for station locations.) The location information for the main
earthquake is:
| Day | Time (UTC) | Latitude | Longitude | Magnitude (md)* |
| 24 | 21:36:28.3 | 34.47N | 106.877W | 2.9 |
To learn more about earthquakes in New Mexico and view earthquakes recorded by the New Mexico Tech network, visit the links at www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/NM_Seismology.html. In addition, if you felt the earthquake, you can provide a report of your experience at the US Geological Survey Did you feel it? site. This information is used to provide estimates of shaking intensity from earthquakes using community based responses.
Susan Bilek and John Schlue, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
The above picture shows all three quakes as viewed from NMT's Dagger
Draw, NM, station. (See stations
map page for station locations.) The times and locations of these events
are :
| Day | Time (UTC) | Latitude | Longitude | Magnitude (md)* |
| 23 | 09:22:04 | 32.58N | 104.62W | 3.9 |
| 23 | 12:09:49 | 32.58N | 104.61W | 2.0 |
| 23 | 14:00:00 | 32.58N | 104.61W | 1.8 |
The public is invited to learn more about earthquakes in New Mexico and view seismicity recorded by the New Mexico Tech network at www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/NM_Seismology.html. In addition, if you felt the earthquake, you can provide a report of your experience at the US Geological Survey Did you feel it? site. This information is used to provide estimates of shaking intensity from earthquakes using community-based responses.
Susan Bilek and John Schlue, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
Rick Aster and John Schlue, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
| Day | Time (UTC) | Latitude | Longitude | Magnitude (md)* |
| 22 | 15:39:40 | 34d 47m | 106d 08m | 1.0 |
| 22 | 22:24:53 | 34d 45m | 106d 01m | 1.8 |
| 23 | 12:59:23 | 34d 44m | 106d 00m | 2.2 |
The largest of these events was reported as felt in the East Mountains and was weakly detected by instruments as far away as Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona. This group of earthquakes is located approximately 10 km northwest of the locations of the Willard, New Mexico events of December, 1997-January 1998, which included a widely felt event of magnitude 3.8 on January 4, 1998.
Rick Aster and John Schlue, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Geophysics Program
Continuing Seismicity in Southeastern New Mexico, September 20, 2002
On September 17, 2002, earthquakes of magnitude 3.4 and 3.2 occurred at 9:45 AM (MDT) and 5:34 PM (MDT) at an isolated location 27 miles northwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The epicenters of these two quakes, 32.58 degrees North latitude and 104.63 degrees West longitude, fall within a small region that has been producing quakes since January of 1997. To date 30 earthquakes of magnitude 2.0 or greater have occurred within this approximately 6 square mile area located 16 miles south of the village of Hope. The strongest earthquake of this sequence had a magnitude of 4.0 on March 14, 1999. At this time it is believed that these earthquakes may be induced by injection of waste water from natural gas production into a deep well or wells.
Allan Sanford
Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion, August 19, 2000 at 05:26:28 MDT
The WIPP seismograph Network recorded signals from the pipeline explosion at all seven of its stations. However, all signals recorded were sonic rather than seismic, that is, they traveled through the air rather than the ground. The best recording of this event was at station CL2B located about 23 km NNE. The first signal received at this station was a weak short duration pulse followed by a 24 second period of very weak oscillations. At the end of the 24 second period the largest of the sonic pulses occurred followed by strong continuous noise that persisted until the pipeline was shut down a little less than one hour later. A sonic pulse about twice the strength of the continuous noise was recorded about 17 seconds after the largest signal. Using a velocity of 335 m/sec and a distance of 23 km, we obtained the following origin times for the three sonic pulses based on arrival times at station CL2B.
First 05:26:28 MDT Weak
Second 05:26:52 MDT Strong
Third 05:27:10 MDT Moderate
We speculate that the first sonic pulse is the initial rupture of the gas pipeline. The second is the ignition of the gas and possibly further rupture of the pipeline. The third might also be further rupture.
Allan Sanford, Kuo-wan Lin, Rick Aster
See the New Mexico Tech/University of Arizona web page on this event and stories in the Albuquerque Journal (requires subscription) for more information. The ABQ Journal story originally called "106090news08-23-00.htm" may be of most interest.
Seismologists at New Mexico Tech in Socorro recorded the earthquake activity on the university's network of seismic stations and fielded felt reports from the largest tremor from San Acacia area residents. Preliminary analyses of the quakes show the epicenter to be about three and a half miles west of San Acacia, near San Lorenzo Arroyo.
The first earthquake, which registered at magnitude 2.1, occurred at 10:03:46.8 p.m. This strongest temblor was then followed by a swarm of at least 10 smaller earthquakes, all measuring less than magnitude 1 and too small to be felt. "The first earthquake was felt because it was fairly large and because its source was shallow--only approximately 2.5 kilometers or 1.6 miles deep," says Richard C. Aster, associate professor of geophysics and research geophysics at New Mexico Tech.
Historical and recent records of New Mexico earthquakes show that, although the area along the Rio Grande from Socorro north to Bernardo occupies only two percent of the total area of the state, it accounts for about 45 percent of all of New Mexico's earthquake activity. Seismic records also show that the earthquake activity in the area is often dominated by swarms of temblors lasting days or weeks, some strong enough to be felt.
Aster explains that the relatively high earthquake activity in the Socorro
area, an area that seismologists refer to as the "Socorro seismic anomaly"
is probably attributable to the ongoing inflation of a mostly thin, yet
extensive, horizontal layer of molten rock, the "Socorro magma body," residing
about 12 miles below the middle Rio Grande valley, between Socorro and
Bernardo.
(George Zamora)
Earthquake seismograms from the Willard Swarm recorded in Albuquerque are now available at the USGS Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory web page.
For general New Mexico earthquake information, see the New Mexico Bureau of Geology Mineral Museum Display: Seismology In New Mexico
Mainly designed in a non-technical manner for interested laypersons, the NMBG&MR earthquake education and resources site contains an explanation of the Richter scale, a history and epicenter map of past earthquakes in New Mexico, earthquake preparedness instructions, and links to additional earthquake information on the web. The website's URL address is at http://tremor.nmt.edu.
New Mexico has a long history of earthquakes including a famous 1906 event in the Socorro area, which was estimated to be greater than magnitude 6.0, a magnitude 5.5 earthquake near Dulce in 1966, and a swarm of 34 earthquakes between magnitude 2.0 and 4.7 in the Bernardo area during 1989.
Paleoseismic studies, in which geologists dig trenches across known faults to examine displaced strata, have also provided evidence of large prehistoric earthquakes within the boundaries of modern-day New Mexico.
Most recently, over the past few weeks, several earthquakes with magnitudes as large as 3.8 have been felt in central New Mexico, between Mountainair and Willard.
The Geophysics group at New Mexico Tech, which operates the New Mexico Tech Seismic Observatory, also has posted a related website which focuses specifically on recent earthquake activity in New Mexico. The site address is http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/recentquakes.html.
There are records of 1,111 seismic events felt in New Mexico between 1849 and 1975, including three caused by atomic bomb explosions in 1945, 1961, and 1967.
Some earthquakes which occurred in southeastern New Mexico are thought to be related to oil and gas production; and a series of small earthquakes recorded near Heron and El Vado reservoirs in northern New Mexico were caused by the weight of the water in the reservoirs.
Most of New Mexico's earthquakes, however, are caused by naturally occurring tectonic forces within the Earth's crust.
Development of the NMBG&MR earthquake information web site is being funded by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), administered through the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, with state matching funds from the NMBG&MR.
The NMBG&MR is the state agency responsible for investigating and disseminating information about the geology and mineral resources of New Mexico. -NMT- Bill Haneberg
Earthquakes of this size are not especially rare in New Mexico, occurring at irregular intervals of several years.
Comparably-sized or larger earthquakes remain possible in this swarm
Rick Aster, Allan Sanford, and Kuo-wan Lin
New Mexico Tech Geophysics Program
Note that these earthquakes were rather distant from the NMT network, and these locations should be taken as preliminary.
The largest earthquake was followed shortly by two nearly colocated earthquakes of slightly smaller magnitude at approximately 6:32 and 6:34 am. All of these earthquakes are members of a swarm of generally much smaller earthquakes (more than 30 identified so far) in this area that was observed by the NMT Seismological Observatory to start on 12/23/97.
Rick Aster and Kuo-wan Lin
New Mexico Tech Geophysics Program
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Last Updated: May 23, 2007 |
